A businessman checks his Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) BlackBerry handset at the Dubai Financial Market trading floor in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010. Research In Motion Ltd. averted a ban on its BlackBerry smartphone in theUnited Arab Emirates after the country's phone regulator said the company's messaging services now comply with local regulations. Photographer: Matilde Gattoni/Bloomberg less

A businessman checks his Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) BlackBerry handset at the Dubai Financial Market trading floor in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), on Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010. Research In Motion Ltd. ... more

Photo: Matilde Gattoni, Bloomberg News

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A Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) BlackBerry handset is displayed at a Mobile Telecommunications Co. (Zain KK) store at Seef Mall, in Manama, Bahrain, on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010. Bahrain Telecommunications Co., the nation's largest phone company, also knownas Batelco, is studying plans to acquire a stake in Zain Saudi Arabia as part of its expansion strategy, Chief Executive Officer Peter Kaliaropoulos said. Photographer: Phil Weymouth/Bloomberg less

The iPhone was an also-ran for Monica Amilpas when she chose her first smart phone last year. She opted for the BlackBerry Curve because it had an instant-messaging feature the Apple device lacked.

"BlackBerry Messenger has helped me a lot because the little messages are free," said Amilpas, 31, who works at a consulting firm in Mexico City and stays in touch with clients, colleagues and family through BBM, as it's known. "Before I had to use text messages, but this doesn't cost anything."

The messaging feature and lower-cost phones have boosted the popularity of Research In Motion's BlackBerry in the developing world, making it the top smart-phone brand in Latin America this year, researcher IDC says. RIM is relying on emerging markets for revenue growth as competition from Apple and Google's Android operating system cut into its U.S. and European sales.

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While the iPhone has won market share in the United States, its price tag of about $700 puts it out of reach for people in Mexico, Brazil, India and Indonesia, where most users prepay for mobile service because they lack the credit to qualify for contracts that offer subsidized phones.

At an America Movil SAB store in Mexico City, the Curve costs $273 without a contract, compared with nearly three times as much for the iPhone 4. Eighty-six percent of America Movil's clients prepay for service, according to the carrier, Latin America's largest.

Besides luring consumers with lower pricing, RIM has won over wireless-service providers who like the BlackBerry's data compression, says Kevin Restivo, an analyst at IDC in Toronto.

"What RIM has done really well is create a device for all users," he said. "RIM has some very distinct advantages that people tend to overlook, advantages that attract carriers."

RIM ran an international advertising campaign this year that featured tag lines like "Conversations come naturally on BBM," touting the service as a way to stay in touch more cheaply than calling and more quickly than texting.

The Canadian company announced plans in March to start manufacturing the entry-level Curve in Brazil to eliminate import tariffs that can be as much as 30 percent. The Curve already costs about $340 less than the iPhone over the life of a two-year contract in Brazil, according to Morgan Keegan & Co., a significant saving in a country where the average monthly wage is about $900.

While RIM's entry-level Curve lacks the touch screen and movement sensors that have helped sales of the iPhone, those features have been incorporated into the Torch, introduced in August. In Mexico City, however, the Torch costs even more than the iPhone 4.

Curve's popularity

For now, customers like Amilpas are buying the Curve because it provides a cheaper, faster way to communicate, which she says is more important than playing games or Web surfing.

RIM surpassed Nokia in Latin America in the first quarter to become the region's top smart-phone manufacturer and had 39 percent of the market last quarter, according to research firm Canalys in England. Apple wasn't among the top four.

In Venezuela, BBM and the BlackBerry enjoy a status similar to the iPhone's in the United States. The device even earned an endorsement from President Hugo Chavez, who on national TV called his BlackBerry and Twitter account "my secret weapon."

"BBM has really hit the mark there and the BlackBerry is almost like a club there, where status is about communicating by BBM," said IDC's Restivo.

BBM is also popular in socially conservative Saudi Arabia, where its speed - messages are typically sent in less than two seconds, according to Morgan Keegan - has made it a way for teenagers to communicate in a country where religious police bar unmarried couples from meeting in public. The growing use of BlackBerrys by young Saudis has been criticized by supporters of the country's traditional Islamic rules, who this year welcomed a threatened ban on RIM's messaging service in the country.

In the Asia-Pacific region, excluding Japan and South Korea, RIM's smart-phone market share expanded in the third quarter to 6.2 percent from 3.8 percent a year earlier, while second-place Apple remained at 9.6 percent and leader Nokia fell to 64 percent from 73 percent, according to Canalys.

In many emerging markets, which have high mobile calling costs, BBM's speed has turned the service into a substitute for phone conversations, says Morgan Keegan's Tavis McCourt, who published the study on the BlackBerry's data cost savings.

"Your average person in Brazil is paying 40 cents a minute for voice - prepaid or postpaid. It's not like in the U.S.," says the Nashville analyst, who rates RIM shares "outperform." "It wouldn't be as successful as it was if people weren't replacing voice minutes with it."